Dr. Dawn Nickel
Anvil Centre New Westminster BC September 5th 2019

The Promise of Social Media in Supporting Long Term Recovery for Women

There is a growing evidence base that digital social network sites (SNSs) are increasingly effective for people looking to build recovery capital. Among the many benefits of engaging with SNSs:

Peer-to-peer support

Improves health literacy

Peers share stories, strategies, tools and resources

Some evidence of increased consumer activation, intervention

Increases recovery capital and enhances recovery identity

Helps build an abstinent network (supportive of recovery)

Moderates the role of stigma

Provides a sense of belonging and empowerment

Various roles possible: lurking, participating and leading

Dawn Nickel (PhD) is a visionary in the recovery movement and over the past eight years has been working diligently to create social media spaces to support women who are in or seeking recovery. Along with her daughter Taryn Strong (also in recovery) Dawn is the creator of SHE RECOVERS – currently the largest online platform dedicated to supporting women in recovery from addiction and related life challenges. Dawn started her own journey of recovery from a substance use disorder and mental health issues in 1987. She is a strong advocate for the view that every woman in or seeking recovery must be supported to find the tools and pathways that will work best for her as an individual.

In this engaging session, Dawn will describe the consumer-driven evolution and growth of SHE RECOVERS, an international movement of women that started out as a Facebook Page in the summer of 2011. Since that time, SHE RECOVERS has been creating welcoming spaces and transformative opportunities – on and offline – to connect, support and empower recovering women. As part of the presentation, Dawn will share the results of a cross-sectional survey designed with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and administered to the SHE RECOVERS community in the fall of 2018. In that survey, respondents shared their views about how they believed that social media engagement had enhanced their recovery journeys.

Learning Objectives

DISCUSS the emerging evidence base that demonstrates the effectiveness of a social media approach to support persons experiencing SUD and other behavioral health challenges.

DESCRIBE the organic, consumer-driven evolution and growth of SHE RECOVERS.

RECOMMEND easy-to-implement social media solutions for treatment professionals to better connect, support and empower persons in or seeking recovery.

Dr. Dawn Nickel BIO

Dawn Nickel is an accomplished and versatile leader and, along with her daughter Taryn Strong (also in recovery) the creator of SHE RECOVERS – currently the largest online platform dedicated to supporting women in recovery from substance use disorder and related mental health issues. Dawn started her journey of recovery from drug addiction in 1987. She is a strong advocate for the view that every woman in or seeking recovery must be supported to find the tools and pathways that will work best for her as an individual.

In the summer of 2011, while recovering from a serious case of workaholism, Dawn decided to apply what she knew about recovery to that area of her life. On an extended leave from work, Dawn began to blog and created the SHE RECOVERS Facebook Page to share her journey and to reach out to other women wanting to recover their lives and their potential. Since 2011, she has dedicated herself to creating and holding space (online and off) for women in recovery to connect with themselves, and with other like-hearted women. The Verified Facebook page now has over 270,000 followers.

Today, in addition to operating her health and social policy research consultancy, Dawn is determined to grow SHE RECOVERS and its offerings so that more women (and more women from diverse backgrounds) have the access, resources, support and freedoms necessary to cultivate individualized and holistic pathways in order to find health, sustain long-term recovery, achieve their potential, and help other women to do the same.